“So are you curious about what else we would do on this date?” Keishin said.
“We don’t need to go anywhere. I am still enjoying the trees,” Hana teased, staring up at imaginary leaves.
“I promise that you’ll like the pumpkin spice cake at the coffee shop around the corner even more. It’s just a short walk. You’ll need to hold my hand though. I wouldn’t want you to get lost.” He offered his hand.
Hana clasped it. “Tell me more about this cake,” she said, leaning against his shoulder.
“Where do I begin? Its cream cheese frosting? Its moist goodness? How it’s perfect with coffee? It’s basically everything I like about autumn baked into a perfect little treat. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Cloves. All things cozy and warm.” Keishin pressed Hana’s palm against his cheek. “And sweet.”
“That sounds delicious.” Hana found herself running her thumb over his jaw, savoring its sharpness and heat. “I think…I like this date.”
“Me too.” Keishin brushed his lips against her wrist.
Hana’s cheeks flushed. She pulled her hand away.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“There is no need to apologize. It was my fault. This worldis new to you, but not to me. I should know better. This place can make you feel things that are not real. This room. This couch. They trick your mind.”
“And are you also a trick, Hana?”
“I—”
“Because if you are, then consider me willing to be fooled. The way you see things, speak about things…when I’m with you, you make things feel new. Even this dusty room.”
“It’s…um…not that dusty.” Hana sneezed loudly.
“You were saying?” Keishin chuckled.
Hana laughed too because when Keishin laughed, he made her forget all the reasons she was not supposed to be happy.
“I made you laugh. I hope this means that our first date wasn’t a complete disaster.”
“No, it was not,” Hana said, the last of her laughter still tingling on her lips. “Though I think that traveling inside that café would have been slightly more enjoyable than this room. I have always preferred cake to dust.”
“I don’t even know why the song chose this room for us to travel in,” Keishin said. “Whenever I used to listen to it, my mind never stayed in this place.”
“The song didn’t create this room. You did. Perhaps even as much as you insist on wanting to explore my world, the kashu was right. A part of you is longing for home.”
“If I’m responsible for creating this room, then I can certainly try to do better.” Keishin closed his eyes and weaved his fingers through Hana’s. “If this is my one chance to give you a glimpse of my world, I want to show you where this song really takes me.”
—
Eleven thousand giant, unblinking glass eyes surrounded Hana as she floated on a small rubber boat. She drew a sharp breath through her teeth and squeezed Keishin’s hand.
“It worked.” Keishin blinked, looking around the enormous cylindrical stainless steel tank. “We’re here.”
“Where is here?” Hana said breathlessly.
“More than three thousand feet beneath the ground,” Keishin said. “Do you remember the neutrinos I told you about?”
“The invisible particles that are like ghosts?”
“This is where we trap them. We’re inside the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector. The mountain we are under acts like a filter. Only neutrinos can pass through its layers of rock and soil.” Keishin pointed to the large glass bulbs covering every inch of the detector’s curved walls. “And those are PMTs, photomultiplier tubes. They detect the light that’s created on the rare occasion that a neutrino passes through the mountain and strikes a water molecule. They’re so sensitive that they can detect light from a candle lit on the moon. This tank is normally filled with water, but it’s been partially drained for maintenance. Today, it’s a small lake for two. Or the inside of the TARDIS.”
“TARDIS?”
“Er, forget I said that. That might be harder to explain than neutrinos.”
